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ESPN analyst says he did not liken Venus Williams to a ‘gorilla’ but a ‘guerrilla’

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January 19, 2017 at 7:57 p.m. EST
Venus Williams is shown in action against Stefanie Voegele at the Australian Open. (EPA/Lynn Bo Bo)
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ESPN tennis analyst Doug Adler was widely criticized for likening Venus Williams to a “gorilla” as she played in the Australian Open. The 58-year-old former pro subsequently issued an on-air apology and clarified that the word he used was “guerrilla.”

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Williams was playing Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele in the round of 64 Tuesday, when Adler began discussing how the 36-year-old American was “all over” her opponent after missed first serves. As Voegele hit a second serve, Adler made a comment that sounded to many like this:

“You see Venus move in and put the gorilla effect on. Charging.”

https://twitter.com/PinaCocoblog/status/821839791490625537

Viewers, and some who heard about it later, took to Twitter to express their outrage, including New York Times tennis reporter Ben Rothenberg.

https://twitter.com/PinaCocoblog/status/821845556855083008

https://twitter.com/PinaCocoblog/status/821846076453855233

https://twitter.com/jokelley_tennis/status/821880513375903744

Adler apologized during a men’s match the next day and said (via the AP) that he “simply and inadvertently chose the wrong word to describe her play.” He added of Williams, “She’s a great champion and I respect her immensely.”

An ESPN spokesman provided The Post with this statement from the network:

“During an Australian Open stream on ESPN3, Doug Adler should have been more careful in his word selection.  He apologized and we have removed him from his remaining assignments.”

“Whether it was intended or not, people should know not to compare black people to African animals,” Rothenberg said to RTSport. “Sadly, there’s a history of it happening with the Williamses in particular, and I’d hope that everyone would be aware of those very basic sensitivities by 2017.”

The 17th-ranked Williams and her second-ranked sister Serena have 29 Grand Slam singles titles between them, but have also experienced episodes of racism in the tennis world. They recently began playing the Indian Wells (Calif.) event again after boycotting it since 2001, when they were jeered and their father, Richard Williams, claimed to have been called racial epithets by some fans in attendance.

In 2014, the head of the Russian Tennis Federation referred to the sisters as “Williams brothers” and added that “it’s scary when you really look at them.” He was suspended for a year by the WTA and Serena Williams said of his comments, “I thought they were very insensitive and extremely sexist as well as racist at the same time. I thought they were in a way bullying. ”

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